Ben Franklin's Loophole

While honesty may be the best policy, there are other policies, like tax evasion, insider trading and phony profits, that are also very good.

"Honesty," said Benjamin Franklin, "is the best policy." Two centuries after him, more than a handful of America's corporate leaders seem to have found a loophole in the Founding Father's maxim: While honesty may be the best policy, there are other policies that are also very good. At World.com they thought that $9 billion dollars in phony profits was a very good policy. At Arthur Anderson they thought that destruction of evidence was a very good policy. Analysts at Merrill Lynch thought that false stock ratings was a very good policy. Samuel Waksal, formerly of ImClone, thought that insider trading was a very good policy. Tyco's L. Dennis Kozlowski thought that $1,000,000 in tax evasion on artwork was a very good policy...

The gallery of greed gets bigger almost by the day, as more and more allegations of criminal wrongdoing come to light. We have yet to see to what extent this "infectious greed," as Alan Greenspan called it, has spread.

But the focus on the fallen giants of corporate America has in it an element of scapegoating. As Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson has pointed out, the current dismal state of the economy is not due exclusively to the misbehavior of the guys with the gold cuff links. Between 1996 and 2000, Americans poured $1.1 trillion into mutual funds. Everyone thought they could get rich quick on the stock market. "Greed went democratic," observes Samuelson.

A fabric of dishonesty exists at every stratum of society.

Nor is the problem limited to the stock market. It reflects a fabric of dishonesty that exists at every stratum of society.

A recent New York Times report on theft in the trendiest eateries in America revealed that their well-heeled customers are taking home everything that isn't nailed down, and some things that are. From $3 water glasses to $1,200 ice buckets and designer sconces set into the walls, the folks like the stuff so much that they just had to take it home with them. Restaurants expect to lose 2 to 3 per cent of their service ware over the course of a year, and it all gets figured into the rising prices on the menu. Not all of the culprits are CEO's, either.

At NASA, that citadel of clean-cut Americanism, three space center employees have been charged in a plot to sell stolen moon rocks from the Apollo missions for $1,000 to $5,000 a gram. A safe containing moon rocks and meteorites was stolen from the Johnson Space Center in Houston on July 15. It contained lunar samples from every Apollo mission."(AP, July 25, 2002)

And as a recent study of American teenagers done by the Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics shows, some 35% of all students polled admitted that they had been guilty of stealing merchandise from stores last year. (And 70% admitting to cheating on tests!) (Milwaukee Sentinel Journal, October 19, 2001.)

Of course, there is nothing new in all this. Nobody here invented stealing. As Alan Greenspan said, it is not that the leaders of corporate America are greedier than they used to be, it's just that the opportunities to satisfy that greed have lately been greater than ever.

Indeed, society has suffered from it from time immemorial. The sages of the Talmud teach that of all the wrongdoing that human flesh is heir to, theft is the most common. The sealing of the decree of the destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah was for robbery; the one battle that the Israelites lost during the conquest of the Promised Land under Joshua was due to the immoral act of one soldier, Achan, who stole some of the gold and silver; the prophet Isaiah rebuked the people for selling watered-down drinks (Isaiah 1:22); and the Midrash says that Ruth had to arrange her late-night encounter with Boaz out in the field because he had to sleep there with the barley harvest in order to ward off local thieves.

What To Do?

The infection of greed will not be eradicated by government regulation, but by self-regulation.

The response of American government -- to increase penalties for corporate crime and implement a more effective regulatory structure -- is laudable. But ultimately, the infection of greed will not be eradicated by government regulation, but by self-regulation. Otherwise, just as the CEO's and accountants have conspired to circumvent the existing laws, so they will find ways to outsmart or outrun the new ones. Nor can we realistically expect the heads of business, who operate at a level where the temptations are greatest, to be more moral than the rest of society. It is not the problem of a handful of transgressors, but of an entire culture of dishonesty. There is a cynicism toward immoral acts. Everything becomes accepted because "everybody does it." But if we can regain our sense of outrage at such immoral behavior, then we have a chance at the moral recovery that will make possible the long-term economic recovery that everyone is seeking.

Jewish tradition, which unflinchingly records the iniquities of past generations, also outlines the path back to honesty. Indeed, the very definition of theft in Jewish law -- more far-reaching than anything one might imagine -- shows the way. For theft, in the eyes of the Torah, includes the prohibition against not only using false weights, but making them, as well. Just dipping a weight in salt to make it heavier, as the old trick was played, was branded as theft. In Jewish law, delaying the payment of wages is not merely not a nice thing, it is a crime that the Bible itself proscribes. Even disturbing another person's sleep, and depriving him of his rest, is considered to be a serious violation of another's rights.

If those things are categorized as theft, then the brazen act of actually taking what belongs to another becomes virtually unthinkable. Thus does Jewish law keep us off the slippery slope toward infectious greed.

Nor is the Torah calm about these matters. Even the seemingly minor infraction of dealing in false weights comes in for scathing attack. The Midrash (Toras Koahanim cited by Rashi to Leviticus 19:35) calls it "hated, abhorrent, disgraceful and abominable." Imagine what they would have said if they'd had a thesaurus back then?

If the old thumb on the scale is so reviled, what can be said of someone who actually reaches out and takes what belongs to another? Or defrauds him of his life savings?

To err is human; to be outraged at it is Divine.

Our sages and prophets did not lose the capacity for moral outrage. Nor would they let anybody else forget the standards of honesty that God expected of them. To err is human, they taught -- to be outraged at it is Divine.

We, too, cannot afford to lose our ability to be shocked and disgusted by the sight of theft and dishonesty, whether on the level of the local supermarket or the on the scale of multinational conglomerates. So we can take comfort in the public outcry against the guys with gold cuff links who plunder the public trust. For it's not only those who have personally been hurt through the loss of jobs or their stocks' value that are crying out. It's more than a matter of what such scandals do to investor confidence and the health of the economy. It is also a feeling of repugnance at the rottenness at the core of American society.

Jay Leno said it well. Comparing the heroic rescue of coal miners in Pennsylvania with the latest malefactors of wealth, he exclaimed, "It's great to see real men back in the news; I'm so sick of weasels."

Ben Franklin, shrewd as he was, left a loophole. In Jewish tradition, however, there is no loophole. For as King Solomon, the wisest, and in his time, the richest of men, said: "An honest man shall abound in blessings; but he who makes haste to be rich shall not go unpunished (Proverbs 28:20)."

My thanks to Rabbi Mendel Weinbach for the inference in Franklin's maxim and to HaModia's Tales of Hashgacha Pratis for the comparison between Franklin's maxim and the verse in Proverbs."

The opinions expressed in the comment section are the personal views of the commenters. Comments are moderated, so please keep it civil.

Visitor Comments: 4

(4)
Daniel,
October 1, 2002 12:00 AM

Insider trading and more

An excellent source to the questions of Jewish business ethics in the stock market and in general is Dr Meir Tamari www.besr.org and his books "With All Your Possessions: Jewish Ethics and Economic Life" and "The Challenge of Wealth: A Jewish Perspective on Earning and Spending Money" which can be bought at any major online book store.

(3)
Ariel,
September 30, 2002 12:00 AM

what's the problem with insider trading

B"H
Samuel Waksal, formerly of ImClone, thought that insider trading was a very good policy.

while i agree with the rest of your article i fail to understnd how can insider trading a victimless crime to be put in the samee category as theft fraud etc. the law on insider trading in the us is deliberatly very vague specificly to give prosecution wide latitude to deliberatly apply it to many cases when no real crime is commited but to pursue their carrier/political goals by hadcuffing few notable buiseness people and dragging them to prison besides the dina de'malchuta dina which is a very limited concept and says ntng about the inhereent morality of the act that falls under it what other Jewish law applys to insider trading particulary if it's not done in violation of any contract with the company by the executive?

(2)
Zachary Kessin,
September 30, 2002 12:00 AM

The problem with Insider Trading

Is that the stock markets are suposed to be 'fair'. By which I mean that everyone has more or less the same access to information. If I find out that the government is going to give company X a $100,000,000 contract next week and go out and buy a lot of stock in Company X I change the price of the stock for everyone else, which does hurt other people. Just because there is not a victim you can see does not meen there is not a victim somewhere.

(1)
Chris Cooper,
September 30, 2002 12:00 AM

Investmetn is wrong????

How does investing in the stock market with the intent of making a profit equate to greed?

Come on.

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I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!